The sweet aroma of cupcakes and sonorous, upbeat music welcomed Guilford College students and staff to the Multicultural Education Department’s welcome back reception.

The reception was held on Thursday, Aug. 31, in King Hall and provided about 25 Guilford students and staff with an opportunity to get to know Krishauna Hines-Gaither, the new director of the MED, and to take a look at the department’s plans for this year.

The MED strives to educate and celebrate diversity and inclusiveness within the Guilford and Greensboro community. The department also seeks to promote students’ sense of belonging by supporting their development in all aspects including education, spirituality and culture.

According to Hines-Gaither, her biggest challenge after she took on the role of director was getting to know the Guilford community.

“I’m spending a lot of time learning the community, meeting with a lot of people, talking to a lot of people,” said Hines-Gaither. “And just learning the way things operate here because it can be really dangerous to just come in and implement new programs without understanding the community that you’re serving.”

Members of the Guilford community, including Guilford College’s President Jane Fernandes, expressed excitement over the new opportunities that the MED will create with Hines-Gaither as the new director.

“She brings a lot of experience with diversity and equity in colleges,” said Fernandes.

Dwayne Duncan, a junior and community justice major, expressed a similar sentiment.

“(Having Hines-Gaither here is) a big step for the MED as far as positivity and growth,” said Duncan.

As for new opportunities, Hines-Gaither has ideas to make progress within the community through the MED this year and is hoping to expand MED work both within and outside the Guilford community.

“I would love to see people working across communities for common goals and common purposes,” said Hines-Gaither.

A top goal for the MED this year is primarily concentrated on student involvement, participation and engagement. Many attendees, including first-year Xandra Savini and Susan May, the community scholar coordinator at the Bonner Center for Community Service and Learning, expressed hopes for increased student involvement with the MED this year.

In light of the recent events in Charlottesville, Hines-Gaither emphasized the significance of responsiveness as a community.

“We’re all in shock, we’re all in pain about what has happened,” said Hines-Gaither. “Most of us will come into contact with the ideology of hate at some point in our lives and so we have to go farther than just what the riot was. We have to find the bigger picture of what it represents.”

Although this will not be an easy task, the MED encourages the community to look on the bright side when working to understand the issues in society.

“This can be really heavy, really messy work. It can be difficult work. … Whenever you talk about race, class, gender, religion, those can be really heavy, messy things,” said Hines-Gaither. “But they can also be things that we celebrate, so I don’t always want the work to be problem-driven, I want it to be celebratory as well.”